What a weird rollercoaster of interest this was for me. This game was first announced at a Devolver Digital thing and I heard the name alone and I was interested. Then I heard it was the guys that did Gato Roboto and got excited. For a while I was just excited. Then I finally got a chance to play.
Gunbrella is interesting. When I finally got to playing it, I did so for a bit and then just kinda felt like "oh, this is it?" like it didn't really do much for me. Kinda just felt like a generic retro inspired jump and shoot game.
Then I started getting frustrated because it felt unnecessarily hard. EVERYTHING from wizards with energy fireballs to a simple BEE does the same amount of damage so you can die from fucking nothing after surviving against what feels like should be a decent gauntlet. There was at least a few times I cleared a room of enemies with one heart left, went to the next room, and then hit a bee I didn't see and died and had to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. It got to the point where I would clear an area and then run back to the save and heal point so that if I died at least that room would still be clear.
Then something clicked. I got to the first boss and it fucking wiped the floor with me and I felt like I was doing NO damage. I almost gave in and was going to start the whole game over as there's no way to change the difficulty to lower once you've started. I thought back to how you could basically control the whole game from the shoulder buttons on the controller and suddenly it felt like a whole new game. Movement with the titular weapon flowed seamlessly and I was able to dispatch the boss fairly quickly.
Turns out, despite the simple naming of the thing, the Gunbrella is like easy to pick up but hard to master. At least for me it was. The game is truly built around the unique movements you gain using the gunbrella to its fullest. You shoot up into the air with it, glide down slow, use knockback from the shots, block with it, block in midair, use it to zipline and all these things in tandem make for exciting combat and platforming moments. Float in the air and block or even reflect shots and then return fire and keep floating down. It's exhilarating when you get into the groove of it.
Anyway, mechanics aside, the story is actually fairly interesting. I won't get to into it but its a personal tale of revenge with the backdrop of a ruined classist world and a twist of supernatural. Characters you meet along the way are actually decently memorable as well and choices you make regarding some of them lead to different dialogue choices and rewards.
Yeah this game is great. I think maybe a little better than I expected. It's the closest thing I've played to Cave Story in a long time and though it isn't as interesting as Cave Story I would say it's nearly as fun to play in its own way. Solid action game with some backtracking stuff that makes the world feel lived in and gives into the tone really well. Think I could recommend this to just about anyone who shows an interest. Might have to warn them it takes some getting used to though.
Gunbrella is interesting. When I finally got to playing it, I did so for a bit and then just kinda felt like "oh, this is it?" like it didn't really do much for me. Kinda just felt like a generic retro inspired jump and shoot game.
Then I started getting frustrated because it felt unnecessarily hard. EVERYTHING from wizards with energy fireballs to a simple BEE does the same amount of damage so you can die from fucking nothing after surviving against what feels like should be a decent gauntlet. There was at least a few times I cleared a room of enemies with one heart left, went to the next room, and then hit a bee I didn't see and died and had to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. It got to the point where I would clear an area and then run back to the save and heal point so that if I died at least that room would still be clear.
Then something clicked. I got to the first boss and it fucking wiped the floor with me and I felt like I was doing NO damage. I almost gave in and was going to start the whole game over as there's no way to change the difficulty to lower once you've started. I thought back to how you could basically control the whole game from the shoulder buttons on the controller and suddenly it felt like a whole new game. Movement with the titular weapon flowed seamlessly and I was able to dispatch the boss fairly quickly.
Turns out, despite the simple naming of the thing, the Gunbrella is like easy to pick up but hard to master. At least for me it was. The game is truly built around the unique movements you gain using the gunbrella to its fullest. You shoot up into the air with it, glide down slow, use knockback from the shots, block with it, block in midair, use it to zipline and all these things in tandem make for exciting combat and platforming moments. Float in the air and block or even reflect shots and then return fire and keep floating down. It's exhilarating when you get into the groove of it.
Anyway, mechanics aside, the story is actually fairly interesting. I won't get to into it but its a personal tale of revenge with the backdrop of a ruined classist world and a twist of supernatural. Characters you meet along the way are actually decently memorable as well and choices you make regarding some of them lead to different dialogue choices and rewards.
Yeah this game is great. I think maybe a little better than I expected. It's the closest thing I've played to Cave Story in a long time and though it isn't as interesting as Cave Story I would say it's nearly as fun to play in its own way. Solid action game with some backtracking stuff that makes the world feel lived in and gives into the tone really well. Think I could recommend this to just about anyone who shows an interest. Might have to warn them it takes some getting used to though.